Map a procedural texture like an image texture
Blender Internal:

Yes, procedural textures can be projected the same way as image textures. In the texture tab, scroll down the procedural texture's settings to the Mapping group. You can find the projection and axes drop downs there.



Cycles:

Cycles does not offer shape projections (cube / sphere / tube / flat), but using but a Texture Coordinate Input node set to Generated or Object, and a Vector Mapping node, a similar effect can be achieved. Just play with the scale and rotation values to fine-tune the effect: